Most colleges enroll many students who aren’t prepared for higher education

At more than 200 campuses, more than half of incoming students must take remedial courses

BALTIMORE — The vast majority of public two- and four-year colleges report enrolling students – more than half a million of them–who are not ready for college-level work, a Hechinger Report investigation of 44 states has found.

The numbers reveal a glaring gap in the nation’s education system: A high school diploma, no matter how recently earned, doesn’t guarantee that students are prepared for college courses. Higher education institutions across the country are forced to spend time, money and energy to solve this disconnect. They must determine who’s not ready for college and attempt to get those students up to speed as quickly as possible, or risk losing them altogether.

Most schools place students in what are called remedial courses in math or English before they can move on to a full load of college-level, credit-bearing courses – a process that is a financial drain on not only students, but also colleges and taxpayers, costing up to an estimated $7 billion a year.

Data from 911 two- and four-year colleges revealed that 96 percent of schools enrolled students who required remediation in the 2014-15 academic year, the most comprehensive recent numbers. At least 209 schools placed more than half of incoming students in at least one remedial course.

At least 569,751 students were enrolled in remedial classes that year. The true total is likely much higher because of inconsistencies in the way states track this data that may not capture adults returning to school or part-time students.

Some states report numbers for the entire student body, while others limit their data to incoming students. Some states also did not provide specific student enrollment numbers at all, did not report it for all their schools or did not have data from that year available. (Read more about the problems we had collecting this data here.)

The rates are “so high that there’s no question students are getting out of high school without the skills they need to succeed in college,” said Alex Mayer, a senior research associate at MRDC, an education and social policy research organization. “The other side of it is these students are not getting out of college, for the most part.”

Indeed, research has shown that students who enroll in these remedial courses often never even make it into the classes that will count toward a degree. A similarly wide-ranging 2012 report by Complete College America determined that nearly half of entering students at two-year schools and a fifth at four-year schools were placed in remedial classes in the fall of 2006. Nearly 40 percent of students at two-year schools and a quarter of those at four-year schools failed to complete their remedial classes, that report found.

Different states use different cutoff scores to determine who must take these classes, which makes remediation-rate comparisons difficult and, critics say, remedial placement somewhat arbitrary. But despite the difficulty of comparison, many states have strikingly high remediation rates in their public colleges and universities.

One of those is Maryland. At many public schools in the state, it’s uncommon for an incoming student not to be placed in remedial education. At Baltimore City Community College, for instance, in the fall of 2015, only 13 percent of students were deemed ready to start on college-level math and English courses right away, according to data provided by the school.

All BCCC students must take a test in math and English called the Accuplacer upon enrolling. The standardized test is one of two used by most higher education institutions to determine students’ readiness. (Some schools use high school GPA or scores on the SAT or ACT.)

At BCCC, and many other institutions, students are placed into one of three levels of remedial courses based on their test scores. (Starting in the summer of 2017, BCCC will only have two levels of remedial math.) A student at the bottom level in math might need help with basic arithmetic. A student who places into the lowest-level English course might still struggle with something as elementary as subject-verb agreement, said Melvin Brooks, associate dean of English, Humanities, Visual and Performing Arts at BCCC.

“Some of them are so deficient, to try to include them in a credit-bearing course without that foundation would be a disservice,” he said, adding that the professor and other students would also be held back by a classmate so ill equipped to keep up.

Carole Quine teaches the highest-level remedial English course at BCCC. It focuses predominantly on essay writing. On a Wednesday last fall, she started off her class with a now-routine exercise: diagramming a sentence. She then wrote two sentences on the board — “I attend BCCC” and “My brother attends Morgan” — and had students suggest different ways of combining them. (One student jokingly suggested, “I attend BCCC because my brother attends Morgan.”)

“The major reason you’re being taught all this is when you get into your English 101, you aren’t just writing the same kinds of sentences,” Quine told them.

Sitting in the back of the class, Gregory Scott Peterson took notes as Quine went over the difference between dependent and independent clauses.

Peterson graduated from high school in 2015 and enrolled at BCCC in the fall of 2016 through a program that will earn him a certificate in Information Technology followed by a six-month internship that should turn into a full-time job.

Peterson placed directly into Quine’s class, without needing the lower two levels of remediation. Still, he said, for the first few weeks he and many of his classmates were “on the struggle bus.”

He said that the class was “definitely a lot harder” than his high school English courses.

Remediation is sometimes assumed to be primarily driven by adults returning to college, who may have once understood the quadratic formula and mastered the five-paragraph essay but have forgotten them in the intervening years. The data collected by The Hechinger Report indicate, however, that the problem is widespread among students coming directly from high school as well.

In Nevada, for instance, 58 percent of the state’s recent high school graduates were placed in these courses in 2014. And more than half of Delaware’s recent public high school graduates who enrolled in its public colleges and universities needed remediation that year.

Maryland has reported similarly high remediation rates for its high school graduates. A study of the Baltimore City Public Schools class of 2011 found that 96 percent of the 354 students who immediately enrolled at BCCC needed remedial courses in math and 67 percent needed remedial courses in writing. At the Community College of Baltimore County, where 417 of the 2011 graduates ended up, 89 percent tested into remedial math classes and 49 percent into remedial writing. (Several four-year schools had lower rates, but these two colleges received over 60 percent of Baltimore graduates attending Maryland public institutions.)

Sonja Brookins Santelises, chief executive officer of Baltimore City Public Schools, is well aware of the gap between the knowledge needed to earn a diploma in the district and what college professors expect students to be able to do on day one. She served as chief academic officer for the district before going to the D.C.-based think tank Education Trust in 2013, where she studied this issue nationally. She returned to the Baltimore school district in the summer of 2016.

It’s “more like a chasm,” she said. “We’ve had too low a standard for too long.”

The district is working to increase dual-enrollment opportunities, through which high school students can enroll in college courses, as well as increase general exposure to higher education, Santelises said. It’s also trying to equip schools with the tools to deal with trauma in students’ lives and to better support teachers in raising standards to challenge students more in high school.

“If we’ve been giving kids worksheets with simplistic answers for years and then get upset when they can’t write a five-paragraph essay or recognize subject-verb agreement, that’s not the kids,” she said. “That’s us.”

Santelises said she thinks the district should be able to cut the remediation rate of Baltimore City graduates going to BCCC or the Community College of Baltimore County in half over the next four years.

To significantly decrease remediation rates takes time.

Hechinger’s analysis shows that remediation rates have been declining in most states over the last five years, yet often those drops have been small, even as states adopted new K-12 standards aimed at aligning high school graduation requirements and college-readiness standards. No one has completely bridged the gap, said David Steiner, executive director of the Institute for Education Policy at Johns Hopkins University and a former commissioner of education for New York State.

“No state right now is close to equating its high school graduation standard with anything that would be meaningful as a college-career-starting standard,” he said. But, Steiner added, the problem is magnified in communities like Baltimore. “The fact also is that when you get concentrated high poverty, it’s extremely hard to educate the student out of that situation to college readiness.”

Indeed, many colleges with high remediation rates say that they have accepted that not all — often not even most — of their students will be completely ready when they come to campus.

“You have to work with what you get,” said Sandra Kurtinitis, president of the Community College of Baltimore County. “We get honors students and folks who can’t read at a fifth-grade level.”

In general, according to Hechinger’s data analysis, remediation rates are higher at community colleges, which are more likely to have open-door admissions policies. More than two-thirds of first-time students enrolling in Arkansas’ community colleges needed remedial courses in 2014, for instance. About 60 percent of those in Massachusetts and Tennessee did.

But even four-year schools, which are more likely to have some admissions criteria, were not immune. In the California State University system, which admitted about 72 percent of first-time freshman applicants in 2014, more than 40 percent of incoming freshman were deemed not ready for college-level work in at least one subject. Nearly a quarter of incoming students at Colorado’s and Montana’s four-year schools were placed in remedial courses and about 30 percent were in Arkansas.

The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith needed to remediate 36 percent of its students in 2014. Students who score a 19 or better on the ACT are automatically enrolled in college-level courses. Those who do worse are either enrolled directly in a remedial class or take additional tests to determine their placement.

If students’ scores are too low, they can be admitted as non-degree seeking students for up to 15 credit hours to earn a certificate or work toward improving their score on a placement exam.

Officials say it wouldn’t be practical for a school like Fort Smith to mandate that all incoming students be ready to go into college algebra or English 101.

“We’re not a terribly populous state. Not everyone is going to go to college and we’ve got a fair number of colleges,” said Michael Moore, vice president of academic affairs for the University of Arkansas system. “Your enrollment will be tiny and you won’t be able to afford the faculty.”

Many college administrators also make an ethical argument for enrolling students who need remediation: It’s the college’s job to help make up for circumstances that have left students unprepared, not to punish them.

“College education has such a transformative power,” Moore said. “To simply tell people you’re not going to college because you qualify for remedial education, I think, would be wrong. That sort of places the blame on the student.”

Instead, many schools across the country are focusing on getting students ready for college-level work as efficiently as possible.

Some colleges, including BCCC, are partnering with local school districts to push remediation into high schools. BCCC has also pared down some of its remedial courses from 16 weeks to 12 or eight. They’re experimenting with different open source materials to decrease the cost of remedial textbooks and remove that financial hurdle for students.

At Fort Smith, a math professor has created an online math program, in which remedial students can go through different lessons at their own pace. The school (and many others in the Arkansas system) has also developed a co-requisite program, in which students enroll directly in college-level courses, but have an extra hour per class built in for remediation.

It’s similar to a model developed by the Community College of Baltimore County, and now used by 254 schools across the country. In CCBC’s program, a professor teaches a session of college-level English 101 for an hour and fifteen minutes. Then, immediately afterward, students needing remediation (about half the class) spend an additional 75 minutes with the same instructor, honing in on problem areas. In 2014, nearly 40 percent of students in this program not only finished English 101, but went on to complete English 102, compared to fewer than 15 percent in traditional developmental courses, according to data from the college.

Programs and experiments like these take considerable time and energy — as well as more money than traditional remedial courses — for colleges to run. The Community College of Baltimore County program, for example, costs $78,000 a year for 54 credit hours; $35,000 of that is spent training faculty how to teach these courses, officials said. But CCBC President Kurtinitis says it’s worth it.

“It’s an expense we incur gladly,” she said. “It’s really an investment in retaining students who are now prepared at the college level.”

My son has struggled with math his whole life. He comes home from his sessions at Mathnasium reporting that he is getting help and that the tutors are friendly and personable. This service means the world to us as parents.

The staff at Mathnasium are knowledgeable, make math make sense and will spend the extra time working on a concept until my child gets it. They are friendly and make it a positive experience for my child.

Mathnasium of Dunkirk Reviews

February 11, 2018

A.H.

My son has struggled with math his whole life. He comes home from his sessions at Mathnasium reporting that he is getting help and that the tutors are friendly and personable. This service means the world to us as parents.

The staff at Mathnasium are knowledgeable, make math make sense and will spend the extra time working on a concept until my child gets it. They are friendly and make it a positive experience for my child.

I can't believe the difference Mathnasium makes. If you're on the fence because of the cost, like I was; I can honestly say it was so very much worth every single penny. Not just for my childs improved math skills, but his renewed self confidence makes it priceless. Now if they only had a handwriting-nasium. ;)

My son has been going weekly for two years and still loves going, especially because of the math games and prizes. Kama and Joe and the rest of the staff are amazing. I will continue to recommend this place.

The staff at Mathnasium is friendly and always greet you with a smile. The work is appropriate for my child and she loves going to the center each week. Most importantly, she has gained confidence as it relates to solving math problems.

My son Robert has been going to Mathnasium for 3 years and have advanced tremendously.
Mathnasium is a very positive influence and I would highly recommend it for every child. Not to mention, Ms. Kama and her staff are highly involved.

I have never been more impressed with a tutoring program. My son went from a low C to a high B in a month and would say “I actually understand it”. He likes to go, never complains about tutoring, which is unusual for a 13 year old! We can’t say enough great things about Mathnasium.

Our son needed the refresher. I heard so many times oh..I forgot, oh I forgot but now I know. Nice to know that he knows before he gets tested and realizes he forgot!
This is such a valuable resource to solidify what our son has learned in school. Mathnasium adds a fun twist and thankfully they are local!
Friendly staff that really seem to care.

My daughter enjoys the Mathnasium. Her math grade has improved and she is more confident in math. She loves attending the sessions amd showing me what she has learned. I just wish there was a closer location.

I am so pleased! It's been such a great experience so far. My daughter told me she finally understands some things that she just couldn't grasp in school. I do have one regret..... not starting sooner! Thank you so much Kama and Joe!

Mathnasium has been a tremendous help in my daughter's change in attitude towards math in general and her ability to accomplish her tasking. We do not have the math anxiety or homework frustration we used to encounter. Truly a blessing for both student and parents.

The Mathnasium staff is amazing! Not only are they incredibly knowledgeable and helpful, but they are so personable. It is the attention and care the staff gives that keep my kids excited about coming back each week.

My son Patrick was getting D's and Es in math. We went to great lengths to learn the common core math with no success. So we were not able to help him with homework. We could show him how to do adding, subtracting the so called OldWay and he would understand. After speaking with his math teacher it was clear that I was just confusing him further. My Mother In Law signed. Patrick and Morgan. We saw results almost immediately on his report card and test papers no longer had red pen markings over most of the page. Patrick enjoys going to Mathnasium ! He now gets Bs and a rare C!

All of the instructors are very "bubbly", which makes the kids excited to come there and learn. They are all taught in the same fashion, so no matter who works with your child that day, it stays consistent. It's a very fun environment for them to learn. My daughter has brought her grade up by 2 grades in a very short amount of time. I highly recommend Mathnasium to anyone who's child is struggling.

When your daughter comes home from Mathnasium and tells you that she "NOW" enjoys learning math ... when your daughter tells you that she is now more confident in math... when your daughter tells you that the people who work with her at Mathnesium are all friendly, knowledgable and personable ... when your daughter tells you she wanted another math section on the SAT as she felt more prepared than her SAT test prior to Mathnasium --- you know you have made a great investment in a great business with great results!

The staff are educated and approachable in discussing my child's mathematical needs. The atmosphere is relaxed and the staff is respectful of individuals. The facility is cheerful and clean. It's great to have a quality resource in Calvert County.

Since my son Josef has been attending Mathnasium his confidence level in Math and all areas have increased. I love the confidence that the instructors at Mathnasium have help to develop in him. Each instructor is friendly, kind and help make math fun.

Mathnasium has been a tremendous help to our daughter. The additional instruction she receives and help with her homework has allowed her to maintain good grades in an accelerated math class. I'm so grateful we found this resource! Our family thanks you for a job well done!!

My daughter Julia has benefited tremendously from Mathnasium and will continue to attend to strengthen her math skills. The way math is being taught in our schools, have changed so much that as a parent I am not able to help my child and as a result I have to relie on the experts at Mathnisium for help. I am so thankful that we have this available to us in Calvert County. If Mrs Friedman did not take the initiative to open this facility I am not sure what I would do.

So far so good. I was worried about the noise level, as my son is easily distracted by ANYTHING else gong on in the room besides his studies, but it is working out so far. We try to get hi there early, when it is less crowded and that is working great so far. He enjoys his time there.

My daughter took the SAT math prep course over about 8 weeks leading up to taking the SAT for a second time. She enjoyed going to the sessions and said she got a lot out of the tutoring she received. She also raised SAT Math score by 30 points and her combined SAT score by 50 points. The class was worth the investment of time and money.

Mathnasium helped my daughter tremendously. She's more confident about tackling math problems. She's been going for a few years, but we had to stop for a few months, but are looking forward to getting her back there very soon. She's constantly telling me she "misses going." Just hearing her say she misses learning math I realize I had made the right decision taking her to Mathnasium. She used to cringe when it came time for math homework!

I think my granddaughter could relate to the instructors better because she felt they were closer to her age. She felt they explained it better than her teachers. I was extremely pleased with the program and if she experiences any other issues, we will return.

My daughter loves going to Mathnasium and feels excited about her progress. Relatively she has attended for a short time, but the staff is very personable and she talks about how great her teachers are there. There is a great vibe as soon as you walk in. I'm excited because she feels more confident and the assessments give parents data on how their child is progressing. Math becomes fun!

My boys have enjoyed the summer enrichment program immensely. They look forward to coming everyday! It is so wonderful to see my boys enjoying math rather finding it a chore. Joe, Kama and all the teaching staff have all been such a blessing to us. Thank you!

Very happy with staff. They are knowledgeable, helpful and great with the kids. Only thing that has ever bothered me there is other kids who do not know how to act and have no consideration for others. On two different occasions there was kid that was loudly talking and playing while waiting for his parents and it wasn't just a few minutes. That isn't fair to other kids who are there trying to learn/concentrate. If he can't listen to staff then his parents need to address this or make other arrangements.

Thank you so much for helping Kaitlyn through the SAT prep. She really enjoyed coming to Mathnasium and working with your team. After doing your SAT prep program, she scored an additional 100 points on the third SAT test, so you definitely made a positive difference in her scores! Now he has the score she needs to apply to CSM Nursing school. Can't way enough good things about Mathnasium!!

Ability to assist my students with their homework, conduct assessment (s) to determine student status and implement plan/program to address deficiencies. Flexibility for student to come in over allotted weekly visits (on occasion) for test prep or difficult topic/material. Fun/positive staff who find creative ways to assist students to grasp the concepts/topics.

We have been nothing but pleased with the Mathnasium results, both for math tutoring and SAT prep. Our daughter enjoys going and raves about how much fun she has.
We have referred several people and will continue.

Kama and the staff at Dunkirk Mathnasium are awesome. Kama has an open door policy, always taking the time to speak with me, answer any questions I may have and including me in Ciara's learning program. She does a terrific job. I like her honesty and straight-forwardness; she's a great leader. My daughter likes her and the staff as well, which is vital to her progress. She is progressing in the areas I am the most concerned about. Her school would like to take the credit, but we all know who's responsible for her progress. Thank you Kama and the gang at Mathnasium for helping my daughter.

Not only is my daughter learning math the way she should be, she is also getting help with the common core math. Having access to help for useful math as well as math that will earn her good grades is so wonderful.

The staff is very welcoming. Each day we go in we are greeted personally. Our daughter enjoys learning and is motivated by the positive feedback and rewards. It is a fun learning experience for her. We can't be more thrilled with our overall experience going there.

My daughter received her first 100% on her math quiz after only attending Mathnasium for a month. I can see her confidence growing and she actually enjoys going to her sessions. I'm excited to see how future progress!

My daughter has only been enrolled at the Mathnasium for 1 month, but she is already feeling more confident and looks forward to the evenings she is there. During each visit, she feels welcomed from the staff and enjoys working toward her math goals in a friendly and supportive environment. Her attitude toward math has evolved in such a short time, and I cannot wait to see her continue to grow her skills in confidence in the coming months.

My kids look forward to going to Mathnasium because the atmosphere is encouraging and fun. The confidence they have gained in mathematics has benefited them beyond making good grades. They are now helpful to fellow students, and enjoy problem solving in daily life. I think the approach of the teachers and curriculum at Mathnasium set it apart- it's not just a math tutor- it's a brain work-out.

My 12 yr old enjoys going & has received a lot of help in understanding concepts. His confidence in his math abilities is growing. We're very eased with his progress & thankful to the Mathnasium staff.